WHO Celebrates Hand Hygiene Success in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Date : 09 May 2022
Venue : Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised the Kingdom’s
outstanding experience in implementing the hand hygiene program, as one of the
most successful examples in the world. This came in a report published on its
official website on the occasion of the World Hand Hygiene Day, which is held
on May 5 of each year under the theme “Celebrating hand hygiene success around
the world”.
In 2009, following the launch of WHO’s SAVE LIVES: Clean Your
Hands campaign, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched a national hand hygiene
program. Since then, the country has made significant improvements in hand
hygiene and infection prevention, and control.
In 2019, the Council of Ministers recognized hand hygiene as
the most important intervention to reduce healthcare-associated infections with
the highest possible level of national legislation. This meant mandating the
practice of hand hygiene for health practitioners, requiring all healthcare
facilities to use WHO’s tools to evaluate compliance, and directing all health
sectors to launch and intensify hand hygiene educational programs in healthcare
facilities.
